While designing a Form, Report or Query certain properties of these objects we can Zoom in and edit the property values in a big window, like Record Source Property, Filter or Order By property etc. When you right-click on these properties a Shortcut Menu will open up with the Zoom option in it (see the image below) and when clicked we can edit the property values comfortably in a big window.

But this option is not available when editing data on Forms, for large Field Type like Memo or text fields that holds more data than it displays.

Click to Enlarge

The Zoom Tool Button is available under Properties Category of Forms, Reports, Query and Index groups in the Built-in Shortcut Menus. We can make a copy of this button and paste it on our Custom Shortcut Menu or on the built-in Form View Control Shortcut Menu, as we did for Animated Floating Calendar and use it on our Forms, if needed.

But we will do it differently. We are going to design our own Zoom In Control and it will be interesting to explore and find out how this thing works?

We can create this very easily. We need a small Form, two small VB Routines and a Shortcut Menu Button, similar to the one that we have created on the Form View Control sub-menu for our Animated Floating Calendar.

Open a new Form and Design a Text Box and two Command Buttons as shown below:

Click to Enlarge

Set the properties of the Form, Text Box and Command Buttons as given below:

1. Display the Form’s Property Sheet (Press Alt+ENTER) and change the following Form Properties:

    

   • Caption = Zoom

      

   • Default View = Single Form

      

   • Allow Edits = Yes

      

   • Allow Deletions = No

      

   • Allow Additions = No

      

   • Data Entry = No

      

   • Scroll Bar = Neither

      

   • Record Selectors = No

      

   • Navigation Buttons = No

      

   • Dividing Lines = No

      

   • Auto Resize = Yes

      

   • Auto Center = Yes

      

   • Popup = Yes

      

   • Modal = Yes

      

   • Border Style = Dialog

      

   • Control Box = Yes

      

   • Min Max Buttons = None

      

   • Close Button = Yes

      

   • Whats this Button = No

      

   • Width = 5.4583"

      

   • Allow Design Changes= Design View Only

      

   • Movable = Yes

    

2. Click on the detail Section of the Form and change the Height property as shown below:

    

   • Height = 2.4167"

    

   TEXT BOX Properties:

    

   • Name = txtZoom

    

   • Left = 0.2083"

    

   • Top = 0.1667"

    

   • Width = 4.1875"

    

   • Height = 2.0417"

    

   Command Button1 :

    

   • Name = cmdOK
   • Caption = OK

   Command Button2 :

    

   • Name = cmdCancel
   • Caption = Cancel

    

3. Display the Form’s VB Module (Click on the Code Toolbar Button above (when the Form is still in Design View) or select Code from View Menu), copy and paste the Code given below into the Form Module and save the Form with the name Zoom.

    

   Private Sub cmdCancel_Click()
       DoCmd.Close acForm, "Zoom"
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub cmdOK_Click()
      CloseZoom
   End Sub

4. Create a Custom Toolbar Button (see earlier Post Custom Menu Bars and Toolbars) either on the Toolbar above or on your Custom Shortcut Menu, if you have created one earlier or create a button on the Form View Control submenu under Forms heading in the Built-in Shortcut Menu, where we have placed a new button for our Animated Floating Calendar.

 

5. Right-Click on the button and display properties. Type =ZoomOpen() in the Action control and close the Toolbar Customize Dialogue control.

 

6. Copy and paste the following VB Code in a Global Module and save it.

    

   Public Function ZoomOpen()
   '------------------------------------------------------
   '  Author  : a.p.r. pillai
   '  Date    : 29/07/2007
   '  Remarks: Open Zoom Control with Active Field's Data
   '------------------------------------------------------
   Dim varVal, ctl As Control, intFontWeight As Integer
   Dim strFont As String, intFontSize As Integer
   Dim BoolFontstyle As Boolean, boolFontUnderline As Boolean
   
   On Error GoTo ZoomOpen_Err
   
   Set ctl = Screen.ActiveControl
   strFont = ctl.FontName
   intFontSize = ctl.FontSize
   intFontWeight = ctl.FontWeight
   BoolFontstyle = ctl.FontItalic
   boolFontUnderline = ctl.FontUnderline
   
   varVal = Screen.ActiveControl.Value
   DoCmd.OpenForm "Zoom", acNormal
   
   With Screen.ActiveForm.Controls("TxtZoom")
      .Value = varVal
      .FontName = strFont
      .FontSize = intFontSize
      .FontWeight = intFontWeight
      .FontItalic = BoolFontstyle
      .FontUnderline = boolFontUnderline
   End With
   
   ZoomOpen_Exit:
   Exit Function
   
   ZoomOpen_Err:
   Resume ZoomOpen_Exit
   End Function
   
   Public Function CloseZoom()
   '------------------------------------------------------
   '  Author : a.p.r. pillai
   '  Date   : 29/07/2007
   '  Save Edited Data back into the Source Field
   '------------------------------------------------------
   Dim vartxtZoom, strControl As String
   
   On Error GoTo CloseZoom _Err
   'copy the Edited Data into the Variable vartxtZoom
   vartxtZoom = Forms("Zoom").Controls("txtZoom").Value
   'close the Zoom Form
   DoCmd.Close acForm, Screen.ActiveForm.NAME
   
   'The Source Data field become active again
   If Screen.ActiveControl.Locked = True Then
      strControl = Screen.ActiveControl.NAME
      MsgBox "Read-Only Field. Changes will not be Saved.", "Control : " & strControl
      GoTo CloseZoom _Exit
   Else
       If IsNull(vartxtZoom) = False And Len(vartxtZoom) > 0 Then
           Screen.ActiveControl.Text = vartxtZoom
       End If
   End If
   
   CloseZoom _Exit:
   Exit Function
   
   CloseZoom _Err:
   Resume CloseZoom _Exit
   End Function
   

7. Open one of your Data Editing Forms, preferably with a memo field having 2 or 3 lines of text. Right-Click the memo field (or any field that you prefer) to display the Shortcut Menu with the button that we have created. If you have created a Toolbar button above then select a field on the form to make that field active and then click on the Toolbar Button above. I have added a new button on my Custom Shortcut Menu and designed a Button Image (see Shortcut Menu image below), showing a small area zooming in into a big window, but the finished Button Image looks like a CRT Monitor.

    

   

   Click to Enlarge

    

   When the Zoom button is clicked it Calls the first Function =ZoomOpen() and the Zoom In window will open up with the active field's data in the txtZoom Text Box for editing. The font properties of the parent control will be copied into Zoom In Control.

    

8. After adding/editing text, Click OK button on the Control to save the edited data into the source field and to close the Zoom Control. If the Cancel Button is clicked then the Zoom Control is closed without making any changes to the source field data.

    

Click to Enlarge

If the active field is locked from editing, the Zoom In control will still open with the field data. But, while attempting to save after changes, it will display a message indicating the read-only status of the field and close the control without saving the contents.

If the Source Field is locked from editing then it is a better idea not to open the Zoom In Window at all with the read only field data. Otherwise, after the user makes so many changes and when tries to save them, issuing a warning message at that point is meaningless and will adversely affect the reputation of our Zoom In Control.

Before opening the Zoom window, check the Active Field’s Editing Status, whether locked or not, if it is then display an appropriate message and do not open the Zoom In Control at all. This change, I leave it to you as an Exercise. Modify the code yourself and try it. If you could not make it then let me know, I will send the modified code to your e-mail address.

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